2009, Kate Darian-Smith, On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime: 1939-1945‎[1], page 164:

The professional Victorian Football League (VFL) matches attracted more than 100000 spectators weekly from 1939 until 1941. In 1942, however, the VFL lost half of its football fields to ancillary and military services.

(Australia,sports)Initialism of Victorian Football League; a second-tier regional (country area) Australian rules football league operating within Victoria; derived from the historic Victorian Football Association, from which the future AFL broke in 1896. [Renamed 1995.]